Covid-19 is the Black Plague in Reverse

Trust me, I’m an Archaeologist.

Relatively certain these are remains which were relocated to the Parisian catacombs beneath the city. They don’t actually have much to do with the plague other than the high likelihood that some of the individuals reinterred here probably experienced or died from it. I basically chose it because it’s a truly fascinating place and a wonderful example of secondary burial in a post-medieval European context. (Photo by Chelms Varthoumlien on Unsplash)

In a lot of ways this pandemic is hashtag not-that-bad. Particularly in comparison to the plagues which swept through Asia, northern Africa, and Europe in the 14th century killing possibly as many as 200 million people (somewhere between 30–50% of the population), a pandemic with a mortality rate of 0.66–7.8% depending on your age is…